Mogadishu fighting worst in 15 years - Red Cross

Insurgents shot down a helicopter gunship in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and mortar shells slammed into a hospital today in the worst fighting the beleaguered capital has seen in more than 15 years.

Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds wounded since yesterday, when the government and allied Ethiopian troops launched an offensive to quash an increasingly brutal insurgency by Islamic militants. A statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross said the people of Mogadishu are caught up in the worst fighting in more than 15 years.